Description

Current educational reforms have given rise to various types of "educational Taylorism," which encourage the creation of efficiency models in pursuit of a unified way to teach. In history education curricula, this has been introduced through scripted textbook-based programs such as Teacher Curriculum Institute’s History Alive! and completely online curricula. They include the jargon of authentic methods, such as primary sources, cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, and access to technology; yet the craft of teaching is removed, and an experience that should be marked by discovery and reflection is replaced with comparatively empty processes.

This volume provides systematic models and examples of ways that history teachers can compete with and effectively halt this transformation. The alternatives the authors present are based on collaborative models that address the art of teaching for pre-service and practicing secondary history teachers as well as collegiate history educators. Relying on original research, and a maturing body of secondary literature on historical thinking, this book illuminates how collaboration can create real historical learning.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. Part I: The Current Landscape of History Education. 2. History Alive! is History Dead: Problems with Textbook-driven Instruction. 3. The Teaching American History Project: Teachers’ Assessments of Its Classroom Connection. 4. Crossing the Educational Rubicon: Collaboration as a Model for Change. Part II: The Argument for Creating the Space to Think and Teach Historically. 5. Developing a Craft Approach to Teaching History: What We Can Learn from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s National History Teachers of the Year. 6. A Collaborative Model for Assessing Teachers: Why We Need It. Part III: Collaborating to Create Authentic Historical Thinking and Learning. 7. Historiography in High School Classrooms: A Review of the Literature. 8. Lifting the Veil: Teachers and Historiography. 9. Students and Historiography: How Collaboration Improves Learning. 10. Collaboration and Pre-Service Teachers: Using Historiography as Pedagogy. 11. Alternative Education: Historiography and Historical Thinking in the Non-Traditional Classroom

About the Authors

Gordon P. Andrews is Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University, USA.

Wilson J. Warren is Professor of History at Western Michigan University, USA.

James P. Cousins is Director of Undergraduate Studies and Master Faculty Specialist at Western Michigan University, USA.

About the Series

This series aims to present the latest research from right across the field of education. It is not confined to any particular area or school of thought and seeks to provide coverage of a broad range of topics, theories and issues from around the world.